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Joan of Arc

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Image of Joan of Arc, painted between 1450 and 1500 (Centre Historique des Archives Nationales, Paris, AE II 2490)

St. Joan of Arc (French: Jeanne d'Arc) (JanuaryTemplate:Fn 1412 – 30 May 1431), also styled the Maid of Orléans (Pucelle d'Orléans), is a national heroine of France and a Saint of the Catholic Church. At just 17 years of age, she commanded the French royal army. She convinced King Charles VII to drive the English out of France, and he gave her authority over the army in the siege of Orléans, the Battle of Patay and other engagements in 1429 and 1430. Those campaigns enabled the coronationTemplate:Fn of Charles VII. As a result, he awarded her family with ennoblement. The Burgundians captured and delivered her to the English, who selected clergymen to find her guilty of heresy. John, Duke of Bedford had her burnt at the stake in Rouen. On May 16, 1920 Pope Benedict XV canonized her in recognition of her innocenceTemplate:Fn as found by an earlier appeal after her death. Her posthumous reception history is a lengthy one: she was revered by the Catholic League in the 16th century, embraced as a cultural symbol in French patriotic circles since the 19th century, became an inspiration to Allied forces during the First and Second World Wars and an official Saint to Roman Catholics since the early 20th century; currently being a focus of considerable interest in the Republic of Ireland, Canada, United Kingdom and United States. Many people therefore regard Joan of Arc as a notable woman of valor, vigor, and faith.

Joan of Arc's campaigns were responsible for a revitalization of Charles VII's faction during the Hundred Years' War.

Biography

Early life and context

Jeanne d'Arc or Jehanne Darc was born circa 1412 in the small village of Domrémy in the Meuse valley to Jacques D'Arc and Isabelle de Vouthon, a peasant family later granted noble status by Charles VII. Domremy is a village which** is now in Lorraine, but was then a part of the Duchy of Bar — a part of France whose Duke was pro-Anglo-Burgundian in loyalty. France at that time was split by a factional rivalry which would allow the English to make swift gains. There were two factions of the French Royal family: the Burgundians (supporters of the Duke of Burgundy) and the Armagnacs (supporters of the Duke of Orléans and later of Charles VII). The groups were involved in a struggle over the government which allowed Henry V's conquests in 1415 and the following years. In 1420, the Treaty of Troyes granted the throne to Henry V's heirs, disinheriting Charles, the Dauphin (crown prince), and making the infant Henry VI of England the nominal king after 1422.

Visions and mission

Jules Bastien-Lepage's 1879 portrayal of Joan of Arc when she first heard her call; Saint Michael, Saint Margaret, and Saint Catherine are behind her. Oil on canvas in two joined vertical panels. Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City.
Jeanne d' Arc by Eugene Thirion (1876) depicts Joan's awe upon receiving a vision from the archangel Michael

Around 1424, Joan said she began receiving visions of Saint Michael the Archangel, St Catherine, and St Margaret telling her to drive out the English and bring the Dauphin to Reims for his coronation. In 1428 at the age of 16, she asked a family relative, Durand Lassois, to bring her to nearby Vaucouleurs in order to ask the garrison commander, Lord Robert de Baudricourt, to give her an escort to bring her to the Dauphin's court at Chinon. She was rejected, but returned the following January and was finally granted an escort of six men. Two of these soldiers, Jean de Metz and Bertrand de Poulengy, said they gave her male clothing to wear (as the standard disguise used in such circumstances) and brought her through Burgundian-controlled territory to Chinon. She was said to have convinced Charles to believe in her by relating a private prayer that he had made the previous 1 November, although he additionally insisted on having her examined for three weeks by theologians at Poitiers before granting final acceptance. She was then brought to a succession of towns where preparations were being made to bring supplies to the city of Orléans, which had been under siege by the English since the previous October.

She was joined by her brothers Jean and Pierre, and equipped with armour and a white banner depicting God flanked by two angels and the words "Jesus" and "Mary" on the side. With her piety, confidence, and enthusiasm, she boosted the morale of the troops. The small force she eventually led included the legendary soldiers Jean d'Orleans (Count of Dunois), La Hire, and Poton de Xaintrailles.

She arrived at the besieged city of Orléans on April 29, 1429. After several English fortifications were taken from May 4–May 7, the remaining English forces were pulled from their siege lines on May 8. The lifting of the siege — the "sign" that she had said would verify her legitimacy as a visionary — gained her the support of prominent clergy such as the Archbishop of Embrun and the prominent theologian Jean Gerson, who both wrote supportive treatises immediately following this event.

The Royal army's next objective was to clear the rest of the Loire Valley of English strongholds. Jargeau was taken on June 12; the bridge at Meung-sur-Loire was occupied on the 15th, followed by the surrender of Beaugency on the 17th. A greater victory was achieved on the 18th, when an English army was cut to pieces near Patay, with a loss of 2,200 English soldiers versus only a little over 20 French and Scots. This allowed the Royal army to now attempt a march toward Reims for Charles' coronation.

Joan of Arc at the coronation of Charles VII by Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres, 1854

The army set out from Gien-sur-Loire on 29 June, accepting the neutrality of the Burgundian-held city of Auxerre by 3 July before laying siege to the city of Troyes on July 5. This city surrendered on the 9th, followed by Châlons-sur-Marne on the 14th. Reims opened its gates to the army when it arrived on the 16th, allowing the Dauphin to be crowned as Charles VII the following morning, July 17, 1429.

Although Jeanne and a number of the commanders urged a prompt march on Paris, the Royal Court was mesmerized by the prospect of a negotiated peace offered by the Duke of Burgundy. Negotiations with Burgundian diplomats began at Reims shortly after the coronation, resulting in a 15-day truce which merely had the effect of stalling the Royal army's momentum. Charles used this time to take the army on a wandering tour of nearby cities in the hope of accepting their allegiance in turn, a process which bore fruit largely due to Jeanne's "great diligence" (according to one of the chroniclers who served in her army). A day of skirmishing with an English army under the Duke of Bedford at Montépilloy on August 15 led to a slow march toward Paris. An attack on the city finally came on September 8, but ended in disaster when Jeanne was shot in the leg and the attack was called off against her will. Charles ordered the army to withdraw on the 10th. A lack of royal support was also blamed for the failure to take La-Charité-sur-Loire in late November and December.

Capture, trial and execution

File:Joan of Arc on horseback (1505 manuscript).png
Jeanne depicted on horseback in an illustration from a 1505 manuscript
Statue of Jeanne D'Arc, Paris

With a truce in effect, Jeanne didn't return to the field until the following March. An attempt to lift the siege laid to the city of Compiègne on May 23 led to her capture by Burgundian troops when she and her soldiers were trapped outside the city.

Several sources state that Charles demanded that she be ransomed back to her own side, but the Burgundians refused. Instead, she was transferred to their English allies in exchange for the usual monetary compensation common in such transfers, with the hand-over being entrusted to Pierre Cauchon, Bishop of Beauvais and counselor for the English occupation government. Surviving documents record payments made by the English government to cover the costs of obtaining Joan and rewarding many of the judges whom they selected to preside over her trial.

Joan of Arc is being interrogated by the cardinal of Winchester

Jeanne was put on trial by a hand-picked gathering of pro-English clergy, who charged her with heresy. The trial, held in the seat of the English occupation government at Rouen, beginning on 9 January 1431, was conducted in flagrant violation of a number of basic Inquisitorial guidelines. The accusations were a large and motley list, unbacked by any of the direct witness evidence required under the Church's rules. Her visions were dismissed as demonic in origin, without the usual procedures of discernment ("discretio spirituum") being followed to provide any proof of this accusation. She was alleged to be in opposition to the Church, although eyewitnesses confirmed that this was based on a distortion: she only objected to being tried by pro-English clergy who were intent on convicting her. She appealed instead to the Pope, but this was rejected; her appeal to the Council of Basel was omitted from the record on Cauchon's orders. She was accused of being a bloodthirsty killer, although her statement that she had never killed anybody (preferring to carry her banner in combat) is confirmed by the other sources, which additionally attest to the mercy she showed toward enemy soldiers. It was, ironically, her judge, Bishop Cauchon, who had supported the bloody Cabochien Revolt in 1413, and defended the assassination of Louis, Duke of Orléans in 1407.

In addition to the various illegal procedures and the denial of her appeal to the Pope, she was also kept in a secular prison guarded by English soldiers instead of in an ecclesiastical prison, as the Church's rules mandated. It was this last issue which was most cruelly utilized by her accusers: many eyewitnesses confirm that she was being subjected to attempted rape at the hands of the five English soldiers who served as her guards, for which reason she clung to the safety provided by the "laces and points" on her male clothing which allowed the pants and tunic to be securely fastened together. For this, she was accused of the sin of cross-dressing, although the Summa Theologica and other medieval theological works specifically grant an exemption in such cases of necessity.

A set of 12 articles of accusation, which the notaries later confirmed had been drawn up without their knowledge and without any correction of the many errors contained within, was sent to the pro-English University of Paris, which dutifully recommended conviction. Since only a "relapsed heretic" could be given the death penalty, Cauchon next carried out what is generally accepted to have been a deliberate attempt to provide an excuse for labeling her "relapsed".

File:Jeanne d'arc Marseille.jpg
Jeanne D'Arc statue in Marseille, France

She was first brought to Saint-Ouen cemetery and threatened with summary execution unless she signed a confession and agreed to wear a dress. This was followed by what eyewitnesses described as a concerted attempt by the guards, joined by a "great English lord", to rape her, as a means of inducing her to readopt the protective male clothing. In the end, according to the bailiff, Jean Massieu, they gave her nothing else to wear except the offending male clothing, which she finally put back on after arguing with the guards "until noon". The judges were then brought in to view the "relapse". Witnesses saw Cauchon triumphantly announce to the English commanders waiting outside: "Farewell, be of good cheer, it is done!"

Eyewitnesses described the scene of the fiery execution on May 30, 1431. Tied to a tall pillar, she asked two of the clergy, Martin Ladvenu and Isambart de la Pierre, to get a crucifix from a nearby church to hold up in front of her. She repeatedly called out "...in a loud voice the holy name of Jesus, and implored and invoked without ceasing the aid of the saints of Paradise". When her body went limp and her head dropped forward, the witnesses knew her ordeal was over. One English soldier, who had just picked up a piece of wood to throw on the fire, was terrified by the vision of a white dove (symbol of the Holy Spirit) which he said flew out of her body at the moment of death and headed toward French-held territory to the south. The executioner, Geoffroy Therage, confessed to having "...a great fear of being damned, [as] he had burned a saint." Her ashes were cast into the Seine River.

Retrial

After Charles VII regained Rouen in November of 1449, the process of investigating the case began with an inquest by the clergyman Guillaume Bouille. This was followed by Inquisitor-General Jean Brehal's investigation in 1452. The formal appeal was initiated in November of 1455. Pope Callixtus III authorized this appeal (known today as the "Rehabilitation Trial") at the request of the Inquisitor and three surviving members of Jeanne d'Arc's family. Unlike the original trial, the appellate process included clergy from throughout Europe, and faithfully observed lawful court procedure. After taking the testimony of 115 witnesses and the opinions of theologians, the Inquisitor drew up his final summary of the case, the "Recollectio F Johannis Brehalli", in June of 1456, describing Jeanne as a martyr and her judges as heretics for having deliberately convicted an innocent woman in the pursuit of a secular vendetta. The declaration of her innocence was read out on 7 July 1456. The religious play in her honor at Orleans was declared by the 15th century Church to be a pilgrimage site meriting an indulgence, and she was subsequently used as a symbol of the Catholic League during the 16th century. Her official beatification came in 1909 in Notre Dame de Paris, followed by canonization as a saint on May 16, 1920. Her feast day is the 2nd Sunday in May.

Clothing

Statue of armored Joan of Arc inside Notre Dame de Paris

During her campaigns and imprisonment, Joan of Arc wore clothing more commonly worn by men. Her motive is given in her own words, either quoted directly or via eyewitnesses who knew her.

A summary of this evidence would be as follows:

  • During her campaigns she said - as quoted by chronicles such as "la Chronique de la Pucelle" - that she wore such clothing primarily to better safeguard her chastity while camped in the field with her troops, to discourage them from lusting after her, and because her saints had commanded her to adopt such clothing as part of her service in the army.
  • She was quoted by a number of the clergy who took part in her trial, who later admitted that she had said repeatedly that she clung to such clothing in order to deter rape, and according to medieval clothing expert Adrien Harmand, the transcript of the earlier (Condemnation) trial confirms that she wore two layers of pants attached securely to the doublet with twenty fastenings, the outer pants being made of a boot-like leather, likewise attached with fasteners to the doublet. Such clothing provided her with more protection than an open dress would against attempted rape at the hands of her English guards. (See Harmand's: "Jeanne d'Arc, son costume, son armure", p 123, for the passage from the transcript and explanation; and pp 177-185 for an examination of the outer pants). Unlike modern pants such as blue jeans, these could be physically attached to the upper garment and (in the case of the outer pants), were made of hardened leather.

Additionally, the above accounts said that she was finally maneuvered into a "relapse" by two methods:

    1. after being forced to wear a dress under threat of immediate burning, her guards increased their attempts to abuse her in order to induce her to re-adopt the protective clothing, and
    2. in the end they finally left her nothing else to wear except the offending male outfit, which she put back on after a prolonged argument with the guards that went on "until noon" (according to the bailiff at the trial, Jean Massieu). This was seized upon as an excuse to convict her by Pierre Cauchon, who had been placed as her judge by the English.

It's also likely that she wore male clothes for practical reasons: it eased her tasks at the battlefield (horse riding for example).

Since the medieval Church granted an exemption for such necessity-based instances of "cross-dressing", as defined in the "Summa Theologica", "Scivias", etc, her actions were defended during her campaigns by a number of prominent clergy such as the Archbishop of Embrun, the famous theologian Jean Gerson, etc, as well as by the clergy who were called upon to give their ruling at the postwar appeal of her case (the "Rehabilitation" or "Nullification" Trial) after the English were driven out of Rouen.

Visions

Many contemporary attempts to explain Joan's visions have been based on the commonly-held belief that her visions were described merely as auditory sensations which only she could hear. Analyses based on this idea have led to the belief that she was experiencing hallucinations brought on by mental illness, ranging from schizophrenia to temporal lobe epilepsy and even Bovine Tuberculosis. However, the historical documents describe her visions quite differently than the common conception of the subject, containing quotes from Joan stating that these visions instead were often visual and tactile, and could take solid, physical form that she and other people could see and touch. These quotes and other documents state that people such as the Count of Clermont, Guy de Cailly, etc, could simultaneously experience her visions.

False "Joans of Arc"

After the execution of the Maid of Orleans, there were number of impostors who claimed to be Joan, having escaped from the fire. Most of these were swiftly exposed but two of the most famous are known as Jeanne de Armoises and Jehanne de Sermaises, although contemporary accounts are sketchy at best.

According to a later story (found 1686 in Metz), Jeanne appeared for the first time in 20 May 1436 in Metz where she met with two brothers of Joan – Pierre and Jehan – and convinced them that she was their deceased sister. Whether the brothers really did believe or feigned belief for their own reasons is impossible to say. For the next three years the town of Orleans stopped the memorial services for the Maid of Orleans and, according to town records, paid some of her expenses.

Afterwards, the false Joan supposedly moved to Arlon in Luxembourg where she reputedly met Madame de Luxembourg. Later she married a knight: Robert des Hermoises or Armoises.

The false Joan dealt with the king Charles VII via letters for the next four years. Around 1440 she finally received an audience with him. According to a later account of the king's chamberlain de Boisy, the king asked her about the secret he and Joan had shared; reputedly it was that the king had suspected he might have been illegitimate. She did not know the secret so she kneeled, confessed and begged for mercy. Later she was forced to admit her imposture in public. Still, there are contemporary claims that Joan's brothers had with them a woman they called their sister around 1449-1452.

In 1457, after the Maid had been exonerated, there was a woman named Jehanne de Sermaises in Anjou. De Sermaises was accused of having called herself the Maid of Orleans; having worn male dress; and deceiving many people. She was sentenced to prison but released in February 1457 on the condition that she would "bear herself honestly in dress" (i.e. use female clothing). Afterwards she disappeared from public records.

Trivia

Historical representation

The figure of Jeanne d'Arc has fascinated writers throughout the ages. The best known plays, offering widely differing interpretations of her life, were written by Shakespeare (Henry VI, part 1), George Bernard Shaw (Saint Joan), Friedrich Schiller (Die Jungfrau von Orleans), Jean Anouilh (L'Alouette) and Bertolt Brecht (Saint Joan of the Stockyards). Schiller's version became the basis of the opera Giovanna d'Arco by Giuseppe Verdi. Samuel Clemens wrote a fictional biography entitled (Joan of Arc), under the pen-name of Sieur Louis de Conte (borrowing the name of one of Joan's pageboys), forgoing his usual pen name of Mark Twain.

During World War II, both the Vichy Regime and the French resistance used the image of Jeanne: the Vichy regime took her as a symbol of national pride and emphasized her peasant origin and anti-English spirit, and tried to rally support against the Allies by producing posters showing Rouen being bombed by British warplanes with the ominous caption: "They Always Return to the Scene of Their Crimes". The resistance countered by reminding people that Jeanne was born in the Lorraine region (at the time, lost to the Germans) and that she had fought for the liberation of the country.

To this day the French political party 'Front National' still uses the image of Jeanne as a symbol of French nationalism and views respect of the Maid as a patriotic duty.

Her name has been applied to three separate vessels of the French Navy, including a Helicopter Carrier currently in active service.

File:Char joan2.gif
Joan of Arc on Clone High
  • Leonard Cohen's 1970 album Songs of Love and Hate contains a song named Joan of Arc, and a verse in the song Last Year's Man refers to her: 'I met a lady, she was playing with her soldiers in the dark, oh one by one she had to tell them that her name was Joan of Arc,'
  • A "clone" of Joan of Arc appeared in the traditionally animated television show Clone High.
  • The reincarnation of Joan of Arc was the main character in the Japanese manga and animated show Kamikaze Kaitou Jeanne, who used her God-given powers and arsenal of push-pins to trap demons hiding in works of art.
  • The theme song to the CBS series Maude refers to Joan: 'with the Lord to guide her/she was a sister who really cooked.'
  • CBS's Joan of Arcadia, in which a girl about Joan's age speaks to God and uses His influence to do good deeds in her community.
  • The Fox Television series Wonderfalls was inspired by Joan of Arc.
  • The WB animated series Histeria! (1998-2000), featured Joan as a regular character, voiced by Laraine Newman.
  • Joan of Arc is the name of an indie rock band from Chicago.
  • Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark released two singles Joan of Arc and Maid of Orleans.
  • The Smiths' song "Bigmouth Strikes Again" includes the line 'And now I know how Joan of Arc felt, as the flames rose to her Roman nose and her Walkman started to melt' and 'And now I know how Joan of Arc felt, as the flames rose to her Roman nose and her hearing aid started to melt'.
  • The Silverfish song "This Bug" includes the lyrics, "Sometimes I feel like Joan of Arc -- the way I bite, and spit and bark".
  • Garbage's song Vow includes the line 'You burned me out but I'm back at your door, like Joan of Arc coming back for more'.
  • Catatonia's song Post Script includes the line 'Joan of Arc, come kiss my art, leave a charcoal mark. There's so much more to solitary refinement'.
  • In an episode of The Simpsons, Lisa played Joan of Arc and Milhouse played the Dauphin, after Homer read about her in a children's book.
  • In Mobile Suit Victory Gundam, the flagship for the League Militaire's resistance is a Ra Cailum class battleship named Jeanne D'Arc.
  • There is a Japanese rock band named Janne Da Arc, although they are not directly named after Joan of Arc.
  • Tal Bachman mentions Joan of Arc in his 1999 hit 'She's So High', "She's so high, like Cleopatra, Joan of Arc".
  • In an episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, the character of Willow dresses as Joan of Arc for a costume party, having almost been burned at the stake herself in a previous episode.
  • Also, in the Buffyverse, Joan of Arc was the Vampire Slayer of her time period. She had some encounters with the newly sired vampire and former ally, Gilles de Rais, after the war.

Joan of Arc in film

The story of Joan of Arc has been played out to varying degrees of success in many motion pictures, including:

Notes

Template:Fnb Born on or after the Feast of Epiphany, 6 January or 16 January
Template:Fnb Coronation in Rheims
Template:Fnb An Inquisitorial tribunal led by Inquisitor-General Brehal retried her case after the English were driven out. She was pronounced innocent, and described as a martyr by the Inquisitor-General. She was beatified in 1909, and canonized in 1920.

See Also

Wikiquote has quotations related to Joan of Arc.
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Joan of Arc.

Organizations & Collections

Online Information, Essays, etc

Books and Other Publications

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